How do I recover my Inbox and half of my created folders that have disappeared?
I opened my Thunderbird this afternoon to discover that my Inbox and all of my created subfolders from F to Z have just disappeared. I tried creating a new Inbox folder, but T-bird tells me that the folder already exists; the same for the missing subfolders. My inbox carries my most important messages, so I really MUST get it back. It would be nice to recover the other folders as well, but they are mostly 'read later' messages, and not really all that urgent. The inbox is what is important, so can anyone tell me how to get it back? I have whatever the most recent version of T-bird because I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it today to see if that resolved the problem. I'm using Windows 7 if that makes a difference. This is the first time I have had a problem like this with the program.
Chosen solution
That does not sound like a Thunderbird issue then. More like a failing disk.
I suggest you run a disk scan and see if there are bad sectors.
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Go to the troubleshooting information on the help menu. Press the show profile button. Close Thunderbird delete the file foldertree.json and directory.json. Restart Thunderbird.
Matt, thank you for your reply; however, I followed your instructions, and I am still without an inbox and the subfolders. Any other suggestions?
I though that would shock it into life
go to the profile folder again and select the mail folder (or IMPmail if the account is IMAP) and open the folder that used to contain your inbox and sub folders. (either the server name of Local folders). are their files there with the folder names. one with no file extension and the other with msf? is there an SDB folder? are they in that?
Actually, my main account is POP, with a couple of IMAP profiles for a social group I am in. I tried to open the POP folder for my primary profile, and got an error message saying that the profile is inaccessible because the file or directory is corrupted.
Chosen Solution
That does not sound like a Thunderbird issue then. More like a failing disk.
I suggest you run a disk scan and see if there are bad sectors.
I'll try that, thanks.
Okay, I ran a check disk on my computer, and that has fixed the problem - all my folders are back and everything is as should be. The thought of having to go through all of my unsorted messages on GMail almost broke my heart. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help!
this might be a good time to point you to a backup solution. The import export tools add-on does a fairly good job.https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/
Sorry to have been so long in getting back to see your last message... too many things to do, but just one of me! LOL! The import/export tools look promising, and I am definitely going to download them... I am just not looking forward to my son's apoplectic seizure when he finds out downloaded something he hasn't seen and approved of. *laughs* He's my computer guru, and he thinks I'm completely computer illiterate and that I bring these things on myself because I love fonts, decorative alphas and Paint Shop Pro picture tubes, most of which I have because I create decorative alphas and digital scrap. Those things are all necessary for what I do.
Anyway, thank you again for all your help. If I have another problem, I'll certainly ask for assistance here... I need to learn to do these things myself, and not have to rely on him all the time. Its less noisy... *grin*